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<TITLE>MPEG Browser</TITLE>
<h1>MPEG Browser</h1>

<img allign=top src="picture.gif"></p>

<h2> What is MPEG Browser? </h2>

<p>Until now we could view mpegs just like we could watch
movies. Unfortunately, we were  unable to take the advantage of
digital format: I have not seen mpeg players allowing user to skip to
arbitrary frame, fast forward, rewind, etc. </p>

<p>Even more importantly, the video was basically a sequence of frames
with no structure. But it is obvious that video higher structure than
frames: we can partition video into shots, scenes and larger chunks,
like movies, tv shows, etc. We can also partition the video accoding
to the content, for example we might want to select a segment of video
in which a particular actor appears. </p>

<p>Mpeg_browse provides an interface for browsing video. User can play
video, stop at arbitrary point, fast forward. What is the advantage of
MPEG Browse over other video players? MPEG Browse adds a very limited,
yet useful structure to the video: it partitions the video into
shots. Based on these information, the browser can skip to the next
shot, much like a CD player can skip to the next song.  The scene
break algorithm was developed by Ramin Zabih, Justin Miller, and Kavin
Mai. For more details about the algorithm see .....href......</p>

<p>Mpeg_browse works in two modes: preprocessing and
browsing. Preprocessing is necessary for two reasons: the algorithm
for detecting scene breaks doesn't run in real time, and the decoder
is not fast enough (which means that in order to skip to some place in
the movie, the user would have to wait about as long as it would take
to play the sequence). Preprocessing is madatory, since the
information generated is essential to the work of browser. The
preprocessing has to be done only once: the information for each mpeg
file is saved on the disk, in file <i>filename</i>.inf, where the
<i>filename</i> is the name of the mpeg. </p>

<p> In addition to video browsing mpeg_browse supports a wide variety of
options, both command line and menu. Most options have no effect after
the start of the video, but future releases will allow change of
many options (like dithering, frame rate, or skiping frames) at
arbitrary times.</p>

<p>Mpeg_browse runs on Linux, SunOS, Solaris, and probably any machine
other which has wish and can compile Berkeley mpeg_play.</p>

<Center> <h4> Visitors </h4> <img src="count.cgi"></center>
<p><A href="mpeg_browse.tar.gz">Download distribution of MPEG Browse</A></p>

<p>Send comments and suggestions to <a
href="mailto:szewczyk@cs.cornell.edu"> Robert Szewczyk
(szewczyk@cs.cornell.edu)</a> </P>

